1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a mobile terminal and method for sharing location information between users and, more particularly, to a mobile terminal and method that allow users having mobile terminals, such as smart phones, to share mutual location information and destination arrival information with one another.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as the popularization of smart phones to which high-speed wireless Internet service, positioning technology based on a Global Positioning System (GPS), next-generation web technology, etc. are applied have greatly expanded, various application services using smart phones have been presented to customers. Among these application services, a Location Based Service (LBS) has attracted great attention of customers thanks to high availability and convenience. In particular, LBS related to the provision of location information includes a service for allowing a user to determine a current location and determine information about a movement route to a destination and information about public transportation, such as a subway or a bus, using a GPS, a notification service for indicating the arrival of the user at the destination, etc. In relation to this, Korean Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-0066450 discloses a method of calculating a current location of a user and providing path information using a GPS.
Such a location-based destination arrival notification service is a service that has recently been widely used, and denotes a service for notifying a user of arrival at a preset destination in the form of a Short Message Service (SMS) or a push message service when the user arrives at a preset destination by continuously tracking the location of a smart phone held by the user. Such a conventional location-based destination arrival notification service is configured to provide the service on the premise that the service is provided only when there is a single smart phone user. Destinations for which the destination arrival notification service can be provided are restrictively set to subway stations or bus stops. Further, since the user's smart phone simply determines whether the user has arrived at his or her destination while periodically checking the location of the smart phone using a GPS, a problem arises in that the power of the smart phone is continuously consumed.
Meanwhile, the conventional location-based destination arrival notification service is limited to a unidirectional service for notifying a single smart phone user of the arrival at the destination. Then, there is no service for sharing real-time location information required to mutually check the current locations of two or more smart phone users, such as friends or a couple who designated a specific destination as an appointed place, and determine whether the users have arrived at the destination.
Furthermore, a location-based application service has currently evolved and developed into the form of web-or mobile web-based application service, so that the creation of various web applications and the extension of users have been promoted. However, in regard to the sharing of mutual location information and the provision of destination arrival notification service, the implementation of technology using the mobile web has not yet been realized.